


Lights in the Mirror

by sebastianathefirst



Series: Fire at the Heart of the World [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, indulgence writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 07:30:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5408240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sebastianathefirst/pseuds/sebastianathefirst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hono is welcomed home. She is asleep for most of it.</p><p>[set during Blank Points]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She staggered back, until everything from her ears to her back strained to their limits. It was the only way she could free herself from the ocean water. Thankfully, the sun was too low to blind her eyes.

It was the clouds crossing the red sky, like spirits in a river of fire, that brought the first tears.

It was over when her body teetered forward and splashed. Red pierced where hair didn't obscure her vision. She was vaguely aware of the water and sand in her mouth, the heaviness of her drenched clothing, the bottle in her hand.

The screams in her ears.

She felt pushing. On her waist, under her shoulders, around her knees. Whatever supported her shoulders suddenly vanished, and the first thing she thought of, head hanging below her limbs, was that this was the bad kind of pain.

The second was that it was too familiar.

* * *

 

" _Riku!_ " Sora and Kairi shouted in unison, the former soaking his legs in the water when he reached to cup the the body's head by the crown. "How about a warning next time?"

"Sorry." Riku's answer stunned them for a second, enough time for him to press his elbows against the girl's sides, settling his wrists on her sternum. Kairi secured her hands, taking the bottle clutched in one.

Sora tucked her head in Riku's neck, and he cried out when her long hair fell from her face. Riku almost dropped her again in alarm.

Sora's jaw slackened. "Riku..."

"What...?"

Riku leaned in, catching a faint scent coming from the girl's hair.

It was too familiar.

"Ri...ku..."

Riku could hear her murmur. The sound awakened something deep in him. Then,

"So...Sora..."

Sora and Riku exchanged knowing looks. Disbelieving looks. Kairi clapsed her hands over her mouth.

Riku tugged. "I'm stronger."

"Your leg hasn't healed!" The knee that Sora had in the water had begun to sink through. Bending forward and reaching his arms back, he motioned Riku to place the body over his. Riku's hold immediately tightened. He wanted to keep her in his arms for a few more moments—he only wanted to for _years_ —when Sora and Kairi urged him again.

Sora fastened the girl's knees to his hips, and took large strides to return to shore, Kairi following until she could run ahead, to prepare the boats.

Riku couldn't move. He could still feel her hair, her whispers, tingling his neck. It mingled with other memories that awoke in him. The shells in her hair. The sundress that twirled to follow her legs when she danced. The proximity of their hands, their faces, when they slept.

His hand clasped around her throat.

A violent shudder rose from the base of his spine. It paled against the flash of terror that he saw in his mind's eye, back when he first tried to lift her.

 _Sorry_ was far from what he meant to say at all.

"Hono!" Sora called out. "Hold on!"

Yet he sounded more exhilarated than frantic. 

Hono didn't stir. That hardly mattered right now. She was real. She was here. And in an hour, she'll be home.

Riku took a step forward.

_Please._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Added a new piece, after all.

Kairi sat at the foot of Riku's bed, where Hono lay after being changed out of her wet clothes. She took the letter from Sora, and read it again.

_They need you._

Kairi looked to Hono. Her face was unreadable, her shoulders were limp. She responded to nothing they did to rouse her.

Riku's face was just as confusing.

"Hey," Sora scooted closer to her. "I feel bad for dragging you into this," he said. For the seventh time.

Kairi didn't succumb, and instead pressed her finger hard over Sora's nose. "You dragged me into this since you first told me who she was." When Sora stroked his injured nose, she rolled her eyes at Riku, "All those years ago."

Riku made a subtle nod. Kairi wrinkled her nose, and drew a long, quiet sigh. "She's here, now. Building the raft was worth it. Everything you've done up till now was worth it."

She wasn't going to mention what the King ordered otherwise. That depended on Sora, who reached out to squeeze Kairi's arm. "Everything _we've_ done."

Riku nodded again, before looking back to Hono. People—including her own parents—were quicker to believe in her "death" than in the existence of other worlds. Then she comes out of the water with Mickey's summons in her hand.

The thought that Mickey kept secrets from _him_ made his throat shrivel.

The thought that he could've hurt Hono made his stomach explode.

* * *

Hono woke with a breath.

It was the same nightmare. Placing a hand over an eye, she turned to see Riku sleeping at the foot of her bed ( _his_ bed). She touched her hair when she saw that his had grown, too. It surprised her that she could even recognize him.

Sleeping wouldn't be possible for the next few days.

She lingered over him for a few moments, before stepping over his body, and leaving the room.

She found Kairi awake and seated in the hall, and said her name. Kairi blinked once, and she bowed her head slightly in return.

"You know my name, too." Hono looked to a sleeping Sora, whose head had settled on Kairi's shoulder. She sat on another chair and immediately felt the fabric sticking to her skin. "And you cared for Sora, Riku, and my father when I couldn't. I'm sorry."

"I've heard too many apologies today," Kairi chuckled, glancing at Sora. Seeing that he'd carried Hono across the sea and to Riku's house, exhaustion was easy to find on his face. "What happened to us wasn't our fault."

Hono's expression grew just a little darker.

"Something tells me you know," Kairi said.

"Yes," Hono answered, almost listlessly. "Would you like to?"

Kairi bit her lip. She'd spent most of her time outside the islands being dragged about by others. Here was a person who knew, and could even tell her why. She watched Hono's eyelids as they hovered, as if they were too heavy to keep up. Her hair hung like thick chains along her face and over her chest. Her skin glowed eerily, almost blue, in the lamp's light.

Kairi replied cautiously, "...Only if it'll ease your pain."

Hono parted her lips slightly to take a small breath, and hung her head. "Hardly."

Nevertheless, she reached for Kairi's hand, and weaving their fingers together. Kairi responded by squeezing back.

Sora and Riku found them like that the next morning. Only Kairi had fallen asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Still conflicted as to whether I should leave it here or not. If there's more I want write about this time, I'll add it as a new chapter, and not a new work altogether.


End file.
